Monday, July 29, 2013

The summer is just flying by, and already it's nearly time to celebrate the season with our annual volunteer picnics! Like last year, we'll be gathering both at Longmire and Sunrise. This year's dates and times are as follows:

Both picnics are potluck, so bring a dish to share (main course, salad, or desert). We will hope to set up a portable grill at Sunrise, as we did last year, for grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, or whatever else you want to bring, but that's not yet confirmed, so watch for more details.

These are great opportunities to meet other volunteers and park supervisors, to celebrate the great work that's going on throughout the park, and to catch up on what's new. All volunteers, potential volunteers, paid employees, and family members are welcome!

On a Related Topic

For the last couple years there has been a steady decline in attendance and we volunteers would like to turn that around. We are interested in hearing from you with answers to some questions.

Do you regularly attend this event? If yes, what is it that keeps you coming to enjoy this special day to honor your work in the Park? If not, what would it take to bring you out for some fun?

What would you like to see included in the picnic?

Would a different month during the season work?

How does a themed event sound? Give us some ideas on this one if you have any.

One thing we would like to emphasize: THIS PICNIC IS FOR ALL VOLUNTEERS! This includes meadow rovers, citizen science, trail maintenance and repair crews, archives assistants, and everyone else who volunteers their time and energy to help out in Mount Rainer. Please send your responses to volunteer Jean Millan at cgcoastiechief [at] yahoo.com.

Volunteers are needed to assist with Mount Rainier's participation in Seattle Parks and Recreation's "Big Day of Play" on August 24, 2013! Your role would be to help staff the park's booth along with Outreach Ranger Jim Ross, talking to visitors, answering questions, handing out information, and helping kids with activities. One to three volunteers would be great, especially if you live locally. Help out Mount Rainier National Park by serving in your neighborhood! This year's event will be at Magnuson Park.

If you'd like to help, contact Jim Ross at 360-569-6568 or Jim_Ross [at] nps.gov.

Trail Maintenance

All spots are filled for the August Mount Rainier National Park Associates trails work party which will be held on Saturday, August 10th. However, following every August work party, MRNPA volunteers are invited to assemble in a nearby campground for some relaxed time together, a potluck dinner, and an evening sitting around the campfire in the company of friends. Stop by and toast a few marshmallows at the Longmire Campground!

Weekend Information Volunteers

Needed: One or more volunteers to assist visitors at Mount Rainier National Park's White River Entrance Station on weekends.

Background: Due to limited parking at Sunrise, on busy weekends entrance rangers "meter" traffic at a rate of about 10 cars every 10 minutes. Lines of vehicles waiting to enter can get quite long. Volunteers are needed to walk among the vehicles wearing a safety vest, providing basic information, letting visitors know what's going on and how long the wait will be, and holding traffic for those who choose to turn around.

Perks: A beautiful setting, opportunities to meet lots of people from all over the world, free camping at White River Campground, and the satisfaction of assisting rangers at one of America's premier national parks!

Time Commitment: At least one day per weekend beginning ASAP and continuing through Labor Day.

Contact: Rene Ellis, 360-569-6628 or Rene_Ellis [at] nps.gov.

Revegetation at Sunrise

Revegetation at Sunrise is on the schedule for September 7. Volunteers are welcome! Please reply to julie_hover@nps.gov in advance, and let her know how many people will be in your party. Other weekend dates may follow as we get closer to September. Be sure to follow the Volunteer blog!

Sky Viewing Continues

Our stellar volunteer astronomer Don West-Wilke is back for another summer season! Don will be setting up his telescope outside Jackson Visitor Center Thursday evenings through Mondayafternoons with additional telescopes and astronomical binoculars available for nighttime viewing. Daytime sessions will offer observers a chance to use a solar telescope. Any visitor, employee, partner or volunteer is invited to attend.
If you would like to volunteer to help with night sky viewing, please reply via email to Curt_Jacquot@nps.gov. Don will provide the necessary training to assist visitors with one of our many new devices.

What's Been Going On?

Radios For Rovers

The Meadow Rover program has obtained several more radios for use by volunteers this summer. As you may be aware, you must carry a radio with you if you are roving farther than half a mile from the Visitor Centers at Paradise and Sunrise. If you wish to reserve a radio, simply email MORA_Meadow_Rovers@nps.gov with “radio request” in the subject heading. Unreserved radios will be handed out on a first-come, first-served basis.

WTA "Volunteer Vacations"

WTA will have two more "volunteer vacations" in the field at Mount Rainier this summer -- an adult crew at Indian Bar starting the 7th of August, and another youth crew on the east side of the park beginning August 11. And, of course, WTA leads day-long trail projects every week on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays: just check their website to sign up!

Longmire Campground

We are moving forward on a project to build new picnic tables and possibly to install new fire grates in the Longmire Campground. We hope that the timetable will allow J-VIPA to work with us on this restoration. Stay tuned for more information!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Bursting out in flowers and visitors! Rovers, the mountain meadows are in bloom and need your help more than ever. Daily use continues to increase as does the pressure to educate park visitors. If you have a few hours or days to spare, please think of joining us. As of today, July 28th, all radios are available for the entire week. Even if you come on the spur of the moment, you will be welcomed with open arms.

I do want to thank everyone who has given time these past two weeks. Our visitor contacts are in the thousands! There are times when it seems an impossible task, but a visitor who returns your smile and thanks you for the information makes it all worthwhile. I have made marvelous contacts on the trails and had many wonderful conversations.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

This article comes from Janneke Hille Riis Lambers of the University of Washington:

To residents of western Washington, the beginning of the high mountain hiking season doesn’t start until June or July – as snow is cleared or disappears from mountain roads and hiking trails. For example, the roads to the Sunrise Visitor Center and Mowich Lake at Mt. Rainier National Park only recently opened this year (early July), and some of the beautiful hikes from those locations still require hiking over snow.

As an environmental scientist based at University of Washington, this time of year means a flurry of logistical planning and coordination, as my students and I continue our studies on the relationships between climate, tree growth, and wildflowers at Mt. Rainier National Park. Although 1-3 feet of snow remains at some of our field sites above Paradise Meadows, the Avalanche lily has already emerged and is even setting seed at our lower elevation study sites near Reflection Lakes. If we’re not careful, we can miss the entire three-week flowering season of this beautiful species, which emerges directly from the melting snow sometime between mid-July and mid-August (depending on how late in summer the heavy snowpack melts out that year).

Exactly when the Avalanche lily blooms is significant for a number of reasons. Aesthetically, it is one of the most charismatic plant species in the meadows of Mt. Rainier (in our opinion), and a true sign that summer is coming to the high mountains. But the phenology of this species is also an important indicator of a changing climate. Phenology is the seasonal timing of life events, like a plant’s flowering and seedset, or an animal’s migration, reproduction and hibernation. And phenology is frequently directly tied to climate.

Although you wouldn’t know it from some of the cool and wet springs we’ve experienced in western Washington in the last 2-3 years, the Pacific Northwest has warmed by an average of 0.83°C in the last 100 years (according to the Climate Impacts Group at University of Washington). Our climate is changing, and the timing of the seasons is changing with it. Climate scientists tell us we should expect even more warming in the next 100 years.

This warming trend has implications for the phenology of plants and animals in Washington. Plants will likely emerge and flower earlier in the spring, and animals may also migrate or reproduce earlier in the season. This could mean that farmers markets will offer asparagus and cherries earlier in spring as the growing season advances. Our western Washington forests may become more productive as the growing season extends, but only where there is plenty of moisture and where pests (like the mountain pine beetle) or forest fires don’t also increase in frequency and abundance.

At Mt. Rainier National Park, the Avalanche lily (and other high mountain plant species) will likely emerge earlier as snow melt advances, and eating huckleberries at high elevations may also be possible earlier in the summer. Some of these changes may be problematic: the insects that pollinate Avalanche lilies and the bears that count on huckleberries for food may be in trouble if they can’t modify their behavior to keep track of their food resources.

To better understand the link between climate and the phenology of individual species — including the Avalanche lily — scientists like me have to take detailed notes on many individual plants. For example, my graduate student Elli Theobald has been returning to the same plants growing in Mt. Rainier National Park every year since 2010 so she can carefully track when this species, and other wildflowers, first emerges from the ground, flowers, and set seed. Eventually, she will compare those data to the local climate each plant experienced in that year (which we measure with microclimate sensors). The more data she and scientists like us have, the more we know and the better we can anticipate change, both in our local parks as well as regionally.

Collecting such data is time-consuming and difficult to get in the volumes scientists need for analysis. Scientists therefore often turn to the general public for help. A recently founded citizen science program out of my lab (MeadoWatch) is engaging in two such efforts at Mt. Rainier National Park. We have 60 volunteers lined up for ‘wildflower hikes’ throughout the summer, during which they will observe and note the timing of flowering for ten wildflower species. Our hikes are all full for this summer, but check out our website next spring if you want to participate in summer of 2014. If you are eager to participate in scientific research this year, we are also asking visitors like you to share any wildflower pictures you have taken within Mt. Rainier National Park with us. As long as we know exactly when and where each picture was taken (e.g. from date-stamps and geo-tags), it can serve as an ‘observation’ of phenology of whatever species you photographed. Together, these data sources will allow us to understand how the wildflower meadows come alive after snowmelt and change hue over the course of the summer as different wildflower species bloom.

You can join this effort by uploading any wildflower pictures you’ve taken within the park to our project website on iNaturlist.org (see our project website for more details). Additionally, if you are interested in continuing to monitor phenology in your own backyard when you get back from your visit to Mt. Rainier, consider working with our partner organization, the USA National Phenology Network, which engages volunteers throughout the country to monitor the phenology of nearly 900 plant and animal species through Nature's Notebook.

Regardless of which of these programs you engage in, your observations, along with many others, will have meaningful impact. They will allow scientists like me and my graduate student Elli Theobald to continue our quest for scientific discovery. Additionally, your data will also allow us to make very real, practical resource management recommendations to Mt. Rainier National Park on activities which are linked to the timing of the wildflower season (e.g. peak visitation, plant restoration activities). We hope you will participate!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Greetings Mount Rainier Volunteers! Hopefully you noticed the BlogSpot announcement for the upcoming Volunteer picnics in August. No? Then please take a moment to check it out. For the last couple years there has been a steady decline in attendance and we volunteers would like to turn that around. We are interested in hearing from you with answers to some questions.

Do you regularly attend this event? If yes, what is it that keeps you coming to enjoy this special day to honor your work in the Park? If not, what would it take to bring you out for some fun?

What would you like to see included in the picnic?

Would a different month during the season work?

How does a themed event sound? Give us some ideas on this one if you have any.

One thing we would like to emphasize: THIS PICNIC IS FOR ALL VOLUNTEERS! This includes meadow rovers, citizen science, trail maintenance and repair crews, archives assistants, and everyone else who volunteers their time and energy to help out in Mount Rainer.

Volunteers are needed to assist with Mount Rainier's participation in Seattle Parks and Recreation's "Big Day of Play" on August 24, 2013! Your role would be to help staff the park's booth along with Outreach Ranger Jim Ross, talking to visitors, answering questions, handing out information, and helping kids with activities. One to three volunteers would be great, especially if you live locally. Help out Mount Rainier National Park by serving in your neighborhood! This year's event will be at Magnuson Park.

If you'd like to help, contact Jim Ross at 360-569-6568 or Jim_Ross [at] nps.gov.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The summer is just flying by, and already it's nearly time to celebrate the season with our annual volunteer picnics! Like last year, we'll be gathering both at Longmire and Sunrise. This year's dates and times are as follows:

Friday, August 16, 2013, 4:30 p.m., Longmire Community Building

Saturday, August 17, 2013, 4:00 p.m., Sunrise Picnic Area

Both picnics are potluck, so bring a dish to share (main course, salad, or desert). We will hope to set up a portable grill at Sunrise, as we did last year, for grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, or whatever else you want to bring, but that's not yet confirmed, so watch for more details.

These are great opportunities to meet other volunteers and park supervisors, to celebrate the great work that's going on throughout the park, and to catch up on what's new. All volunteers, potential volunteers, paid employees, and family members are welcome!

Every once in a while, I have an opportunity to get out of my office and go visit a volunteer work crew in the field. These are often the most rewarding parts of my job: I get to get off the computer and out into the beautiful landscapes that we work so hard to protect, and to actually meet the people who are getting dirt under their fingernails to make it happen.

This was the case last Friday, when I biked and hiked almost all the way to the Carbon Glacier to meet up with a youth crew working on the Wonderland Trail with the Washington Trails Association. WTA has been leading "volunteer vacations" for a couple of years now at Mount Rainier, including youth crews, and I've been meaning to get out and see one in action. But unlike the SCA Community Crew I visited last week, which just happened to be working on the trail across from my office, this group was based out of the old Ipsut Creek Campground, trekking out three or four miles each way on a daily basis to do brushing and tread repair in a remote part of the park. Still, I couldn't bear the thought of putting it off another year... I wanted to meet these intrepid young people and see what they were doing, and what motivated them to do it.

And thus I found myself finally catching up to an energetic group of half a dozen young men and women, ages 15 to 17, mid-day on Friday the 19th of July. I caught them as they were coming back down from work higher up on the trail, and they were moving so rapidly that I was hard-pressed to keep up with them.

Soon they came to their second work site of the day, a side drainage that had washed out in recent winter flooding, and after a brief water break, they set to work rebuilding the eroded trail, digging immense rocks out of the soil in high spots, filling low spots with smaller rocks, and carving out the bank alongside the trail to make easier passage. As they did so, I chatted with them about their experience. They'd come in the previous Saturday, and had been working at various locations all week, with a rest day on Wednesday. Saturday the 20th was to be the day they headed for home. They came from all over the local area -- Seattle, Bellevue, Gig Harbor -- and most of them were looking forward to earning community service credits toward high school graduation. It had been a tiring week, but a good one, and they had developed an efficient comraderie among themselves, which showed in the easy way they worked together to pry out rocks or deliver them, fire brigade style, to where they needed to go.

It took so long to get out to their work location that I only had about an hour or so to spend with them before I needed to head back to the trailhead. Even so, stopping to chat with a few visitors on my way out, I had only just reached Ipsut Creek Camp again when they caught up with me, hiking hard on their way back to camp for the evening. Several of the people I had encountered along the trail thanked me for how nice the trail looked. "Don't thank me," I said. "When you pass the trail crew up ahead, tell them how grateful you are for their hard work."

WTA will have two more "volunteer vacations" in the field at Mount Rainier this summer -- an adult crew at Indian Bar starting the 7th of August, and another youth crew on the east side of the park beginning August 11. And, of course, WTA leads day-long trail projects every week on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays: just check their website to sign up!

For at least the past decade, Mount Rainier National Park has worked with the Student Conservation Association to bring a special group of young people to the park for 15-day conservation leadership experiences. These are SCA's "Community Crews," recruited from the urban communities of Seattle. Most have participated in SCA's school year programs, and their two weeks at Mount Rainier are a culminating experience that builds on many previous months of service and team-building.

The first Community Crew worked on
the Trail of the Shadows at Longmire.

Community Crew alumni often go on to do other types of environmental service: the North Cascades Climate Challenge, for instance, or longer summer internships with SCA. Some even graduate into the "green and gray," working as seasonal park rangers in the National Park Service. For all of them, Community Crew service is a foundational experience that makes a dramatic difference in their lives.

We're excited to be working, this year, with not only students from Seattle, but also youth from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, through SCA's "Base to Base Camp" program. This year's three Community Crews, each made up of 8 youth and two crew leaders, are about half-and-half students from Seattle and JBLM. The first crew, pictured here, was in the park from June 30 through July 14, working on trails near Longmire. The second crew arrived this past Sunday, and will be working on the east side of the park until August 4. A third crew will be back on the west side of the park from September 11 to 25.

The Community Crew programs are supported by grants from the Youth Partnerships Program of the National Park Service, and the America's Best Idea program of the National Park Foundation.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

This is Jodie Hollinger-Lant, Sunrise Volunteer Coordinator during July. Many of you are friends and fellow rovers from Paradise where I have been a year-round volunteer for several years.

Roving is up and running through the meadows (not really) and down the trails around Sunrise. Trails are almost completely snow-free with the exception of both sides of 1st Burroughs, Frozen Lake down to the gravel road, and down into Berkeley Park. The mosquitoes arrived last weekend and in their own way are having a good time welcoming unprotected visitors.

Just as at Paradise this season, Sunrise requires you to have a radio to rove farther than a ½ mile from the Visitor Center. We have 7 radios available to reserve for rover’s use. Simply email MORA_Meadow_Rovers@nps.govwith “radio request” in the subject heading and one will be reserved if available for you on as many days as you need it.

Remember to sign-in and out in the upstairs Rover Room. If you have reserved a radio and arrive earlier than 10:00, knock on the Visitor Center door to pick up a radio as generally someone will be in the VC after approximately 8:45. You may still sign-in and out after hours in the outside box next to the north door but will not be able to rove farther than a ½ mile without a radio.

Flowers are blooming with the peak approximately 2 weeks away for many trail areas. The Shadow Lake trail, the gravel road, and Silver Forest are already looking good with spreading phlox, broadleaf lupine, cinquefoil, paintbrush, American bistort, subalpine daisy, Sitka valerian, and glacier lilies blooming. Sourdough Ridge has pasqueflowers, glacier lilies, and spreading phlox leading the early flower display.

Remember the Sunrise area is often clear with blue skies, brilliant sun, and a great mountain view when the rest of Puget Sound is gray and covered in marine air. Your day spent roving at Sunrise will renew your appreciation for our planet’s natural state, help protect this spectacular resource for future generations, and assist many visitors to better understand and appreciate what Mt. Rainier National Park is.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The August Mount Rainier National Park Associates trails work party will be on Saturday, August 10th, just a little over 3 weeks away. Traditionally, following every August work party, MRNPA volunteers are invited to assemble in a nearby campground for some relaxed time together, a potluck dinner, and an evening sitting around the campfire in the company of friends.

This year, the August work party is planned for the Longmire/Paradise area (the exact location will be announced later), and the potluck will take place on the evening of the 10th in the Longmire Volunteer campground. The group campsite has been reserved for MRNPA volunteers for both Friday and Saturday nights, so bring your tent and sleeping bag if you'd like to spend the weekend. Restrooms and showers are available for use by volunteers. If you have other commitments and can't stay for the whole weekend, just come up for the day.

If you plan to attend this work party on August 10, please reply to John Titland at volunteer@mrnpa.org and let him know how many volunteers you expect to accompany you and which nights (if any) you plan to camp. Toasted marshmallows, anyone?

Thank you once again to all the Meadow Rovers I have met these past two weeks both new and old or rather "returning". I have enjoyed meeting you and especially training all the smiling, eager and very enthusiastic new volunteers. As for the experienced people, you have been a great help to Jodie and I as we have worked to develop the program under the new guidelines.

While the calendar presented in the last blog is not yet linking correctly, it has been a great tool for reserving the radios and organizing our patrols at both Sunrise and Paradise. We have received radios from various divisions that have made the chore much easier.

As of today, a radio has been placed at the Stevens Canyon entrance station for use roving the Silver Falls and Grove of the Patriarch trails. The entrance station is open from 8:30 - 5 weekdays, and 7:30 - 7 on weekends. There is a check out/in sheet at the station also. This should eliminate the need of stopping by Sunrise or Paradise for a radio. The best access from the west side at the moment is via Skate Creek Road. Please send radio reservation to me via mora_meadow_rovers@nps.gov or my e-mail at Maureen_McLean@nps.gov . Also, send me a quick e-mail with your hours and contacts and I will add it to your sheet.

In an effort to save on paper/printing cost, laminated maps and language cards have been placed at Paradise. Unfortunately, of the 8 sets made, only 3 were there yesterday....so please check your back packs before you leave at the end of the day and return laminated materials, extra maps, buttons, clickers, first aid kits etc. so they are there for everyone to use.

Be safe out there, and enjoy each and every beautiful day roving on Mount Rainier.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Needed: One or more volunteers to assist visitors at Mount Rainier National Park's White River Entrance Station on weekends.

Background: Due to limited parking at Sunrise, on busy weekends entrance rangers "meter" traffic at a rate of about 10 cars every 10 minutes. Lines of vehicles waiting to enter can get quite long. Volunteers are needed to walk among the vehicles wearing a safety vest, providing basic information, letting visitors know what's going on and how long the wait will be, and holding traffic for those who choose to turn around.

Perks: A beautiful setting, opportunities to meet lots of people from all over the world, free camping at White River Campground, and the satisfaction of assisting rangers at one of America's premier national parks!

Time Commitment: At least one day per weekend beginning ASAP and continuing through Labor Day.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

I've just posted a page of links to resources for Meadow Rovers, including training PowerPoints, handbooks, forms, and guidelines. Meadow Rovers, check it out here or follow the link in the right-hand column of this blog; and if you have resources to suggest or add, just let me know!

Mount Rainier is one of 34 national parks across the country selected to receive a 2013 America’s Best Idea grantfrom the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks. Inspired by the critically acclaimed Ken Burns documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” the America’s Best Idea program funds park activities designed to connect diverse, underserved and under-engaged populations throughout the United States with their national parks in innovative and meaningful ways.

“One of the great things about our national parks is that every American can relate to these treasured places if given the chance to experience them,” said Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service. “It’s our mission to engage visitors from all backgrounds in the diverse stories that we tell in our national parks. Thanks to the support of the National Park Foundation, we can propel that outreach, and engage new audiences that would otherwise never have the opportunity to experience a national park.”

“The America’s Best Idea program gives people – particularly youth – incredible opportunities to connect to ournational parks through unique and innovative ways,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “From experiences that center on history, the environment and even adventure, we are able to capture the imagination of a new generation of park-goers in ways that benefit their lives and the future of the parks.”

At Mount Rainier, the America’s Best Idea grant supports a long standing and growing partnership between theNational Park Service and the Student Conservation Association (SCA). “SCA’s mission is to build the next generation of conservation stewards, by connecting them to our parks and forests through the action of conservation service,” said Jay A. Satz, SCA’s Regional Vice President.

“We are fortunate here at Mount Rainier to work with SCA’s Community Conservation Program, which engages high school students in Seattle during the school year, and then brings them to Mount Rainier to serve with 15-day trail crews during the summer,” said Kevin Bacher, Mount Rainier’s Volunteer Program Manager. “SCA’s outreach to members of military families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, through a program called ‘Base to Base Camp,’ has resulted in almost half of this year’s crew members coming from JBLM. And we’ve worked with SCA For decades to provide interns who support park staff in critical roles, learning skills, doing important work, and serving the public. Through our partnership with SCA this summer, 37 young people will contribute more than 9,000 hours of conservation service at Mount Rainier while having an extraordinary national park experience.”

Funding from the National Park Foundation supports the crew leaders for three eight-person trail maintenance teams, each made up of Community Program members from Seattle and Base-to-Base Camp youth from JBLM. The first crew is in the field now, and the second and third will be in the park later this month and next. Additional funding for the program comes from the National Park Service’s Youth Partnerships Program and Washington’sNational Park Fund.

“We are pleased to work with SCA’s Community Crews again this year, and especially pleased to welcome members of our military families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord,” said Randy King, Superintendent of Mount RainierNational Park. “These grants allow us to reach out to the conservation leaders of tomorrow and offer them a great experience in their national parks, as well as stepping stones toward possible future careers. We look forward to working with these young men and women for many years to come.”

More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov and www.nps.gov/mora.

About the National Park Foundation

The National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, raises private funds that directly aid, support and enrich America’s more than 400 national parks and their programs. Chartered by Congress as the nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation plays a critical role in conservation and preservation efforts, establishing national parks as powerful learning environments, and giving all audiences an equal and abundant opportunity to experience, enjoy and support America’s treasured places. For more information on the National Park Foundation or how you can support and protect America’s national parks, please visitwww.nationalparks.org. Follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/nationalpark and on Twitter attwitter.com/goparks.

About the Student Conservation Association
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is a nationwide conservation force of college and high school volunteers who protect and restore America’s parks, forests, and other public lands. For more than 50 years, SCA’s active, hands-on approach to conservation has helped to develop a new generation of conservation leaders, inspire lifelong stewardship, and save our planet. For more information, visit www.thesca.org.

I would like to introduce myself as the new coordinator of the Mount Rainier National Park Meadow Rovers. While I have worked with many of you in the past as an Interpretive Ranger, this position is all brand new to me. As many of you have heard or read, there are some changes that have occurred particularily with regard to roving with/without a radio. Without a radio, our rovers are limited to a one-half mile range from the parking lot or Visitor Center. While this may not be as glorious as hiking the Skyline Trail, believe me, you are needed. At Paradise or Sunrise, there is a great amount of visitor use and education within a one-half mile radius. Meadow Rovers are in the front line for protecting our valuable resources, we need you!

Radios can be reserved by contacting either Jodie Hollinger-Lant (jodie_hollinger-lant@nps.gov ) at Sunrise, myself at (maureen_mclean@nps.gov ) for Paradise and Ohanapecosh, or the meadow rovers' e-mail ( MORA_Meadow_Rovers@nps.gov ). On that e-mail, would you please let us know your start/end times, as often a rover may end at 2 p.m. and another could take out the radio from then until later? You may also give a preferred roving location, though this may need to be changed based on the number of rovers and the critical areas where they are needed.

Reserved radios will have a number attached to the person’s name. Please take the radio assigned to you. Non-reserved radios can be taken on a first come-first served basis. We are getting more radios as various departments loan their extras to us.

Please continue to make campground reservations through the MORA_Meadow_Rovers@nps.gov email as it is monitored by several people.

As this is my very first ever blog...I am hoping all the links work! I have attached a link to the Paradise Rovers Calendar to help you plan the days you will rove. Please work through me to add or delete names. Jodie will have hers up and ready soon!

Thursday, July 4, 2013

New ground-breaking research from the Corporation for National and Community Service(CNCS) provides evidence of a relationship between volunteering and finding employment. This new research, "Volunteering as a Pathway to Employment," provides the most compelling empirical research to date establishing an association between volunteering and employment in the United States. This research has relevance for the National Park Service and our Volunteers-in-Parks Program.

KEY FINDINGS

Volunteers have a 27 percent higher likelihood of finding a job after being out of work than non-volunteers

Volunteers without a high school diploma have a 51 percent higher likelihood of finding employment

Volunteers living in rural areas have a 55 percent higher likelihood of finding employment

CNCS also found that volunteering is associated with an increased likelihood of finding employment for all volunteers regardless of a person’s gender, age, ethnicity, geographical area, or the job market conditions.

The MRNPA's annual Exotic Plant Removal work party ("deveg" for short) will be held on Saturday, July 13. Volunteers will meet at the Paul Peak Trailhead, located on the Mowich Lake Road not too far inside the Park boundary. The project will consist of removing non-native species by digging out and collecting the plants in plastic garbage bags. All collected plant materials will be removed from the Park to be disposed of in a landfill.

Participants in the Exotic Plant Removal work party do not need prior knowledge of non-native plants. NPS crew members will teach you which plants to remove. There will be no heavy tools like shovels and pulaskis to carry or use.

You should bring are work gloves, a small digging tool like a hand trowel or your favorite weed removing tool, a lunch, plenty of fluids to drink, and dress according to the weather. If you have a reflective safety vest, bring that too. The group will meet at 8:30 AM. Be ready to go to work by about 9:00 AM and expect to finish about 3:00 PM.

If you plan to attend this work party and have not yet contacted John Titland, please RSVP to him at volunteer@mrnpa.org. Indicate the number of volunteers you are bringing with you.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Join Mount Rainier National Park rangers in the Eatonville 4th of July Parade! Last year the Town of Eatonville gave us the honor of leading off the parade as we remembered Rangers Margaret Anderson and Nick Hall. This year we would like to thank the folks of Eatonville for their support during that difficult year.

To give the town proper thanks, we need park staff and volunteers, including scouts. We need flag wavers, sign carriers, banner carriers, and folks smiling, waving, and giving high-fives. If you normally wear a uniform, please do so for the parade.

If you wish to take part, we gather at 11:30 AM, usually on Pennsylvania Ave. near Lynch St., one block west of the football stadium at Eatonville High School. The exact spot is different each year and is not known until we arrive. Just look around for some ranger hats! Contact Jim_Ross@nps.gov if you'd like to participate.

A Special Meet-and-Greet Opportunity

Trails is hosting three groups of high-school aged Student Conservation Association (SCA) youth this summer; they will each be here for a 15-day period. Each group has 2 adult leaders and a different set of 8 youth from JBLM and the surrounding areas. Trails will be putting them to work, but also want to provide them a broad experience, introduce them to the many disciplines within the Park, and increase their interest and connection to this awesome place. Many people are unfamiliar with the dynamics of the Park and the inter-workings of how we function as a city, so the plan is to have at least one person from each work group make contact. Just stop by and introduce yourself! Contact Melody Abel at melody_abel@nps.gov for times and details.

We are especially grateful to the National Park Service’s Youth Partnerships Program and the National Park Foundation’s America’s Best Idea program for providing the grant partnership to support SCA’s community crews!

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES!

Longmire Campground Still Needs Hosts

The position of Campground Host for the Longmire Volunteer Campground still has not been filled. We're looking for someone to live in the campground in their own RV and coordinate the use of 31 tent sites, 2 group sites, and several Park-provided platform tents. As host, you will be taking reservations and assigning campsites, making sure guests are aware of campground regulations and that they comply with them while making sure everyone feels welcomed and supported. Your duties will consist of dealing with challenges as they come up (illegal campers, people who've lost their keys, loose dogs and so on), maintaining, cleaning and restocking a comfort station with three showers, and assigning/retrieving keys from campers, and keeping the campground free of camping litter. For more details, fill out an application today at volunteer.gov or contact Kevin Bacher directly at 360-569-6567 or Kevin_Bacher@NPS.gov. Our host site will hold RVs up to about 24’ in length, and short-term assignments (as short as one month) are possible.

Trail Maintenance

WTA trail work parties will be happening on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays throughout the summer. Find details and times, locations, and projects at http://www.wta.org/volunteer/trail-work-parties, and sign up for a project today!

"Deveg"

The Mount Rainier National Park Associates will be holding its annual Exotic Plant Removal ("deveg") party on Saturday, July 13 this year. Although last year's project was done on the Westside Road, NPS leaders are currently evaluating this year's plant growth and the possibility of working at another area. The location will be announced when plans are firmed up. Visit http://mrnpa.org for information on joining this project.Citizen Science

Three “citizen science” projects will finally begin for the summer season this coming month, as the snow melts away from project locations at high elevations. Amphibian surveys take place in remote backcountry locations, while butterfly and flowering plant surveys will occur on trails throughout the park. These projects are possible through partnerships with the Student Conservation Association, North Cascades National Park, and the University of Washington, and are funded in part by a grant from Washington’s National Park Fund. If you’d like more information about these programs, search our blog for “Citizen Science” or drop a note to Kevin_Bacher@nps.gov.

Sky Viewing

Our stellar volunteer astronomer Don West-Wilke is back for another summer season! Don will be setting up his telescope outside Jackson Visitor Center Thursday evenings through Monday afternoons with additional telescopes and astronomical binoculars available for nighttime viewing. Daytime sessions will offer observers a chance to use a solar telescope. Any visitor, employee, partner or volunteer is invited to attend.

If you would like to volunteer to help with night sky viewing, please reply via email to Curt_Jacquot@nps.gov. Don will provide the necessary training to assist visitors with one of our many new devices.

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON?

Longmire Campground Procedures

With no host in the Volunteer Campground, we've had to make a few adjustments to site assignment procedures this summer. If at all possible, you should contact your supervisor or the Volunteer Program office to make a reservation at least a week in advance of your expected arrival date. Reserved campsites will be marked with a card clipped to the numbered post at each campsite. If you have not received confirmation of your request from your supervisor, Kevin, Crow or Joshua, or if you have made last-minute plans to camp, you may take any unoccupied, non-reserved campsite. A key to the showers is now hung in a lock-box on the door closest to the propane tank, and the combination will be made available to you when you check in with a supervisor.

Also, we have been given permission to allow campers in the Volunteer Campground to use wood from any of the remaining stacks/piles still in the campground. Please note that this permission applies only to wood which has already been gathered by clean-up crews.

No matter where you’re volunteering in the park, let your supervisor know if you need overnight camping, and we’ll arrange a space for you at the nearest campground.

Summer Meadow Rovers

Meadow Rover trainings were well-attended, and we'd like to give a big welcome to Maureen McLean and Jodie Hollinger-Lant who will be overseeing the program this year. If you'd like to do some Roving, just let them know! Maureen and Jodie will also be proposing and implementing some new strategies to make the program more efficient, effective, and safe. They can be reached through the Meadow Rover mailbox at MORA_Meadow_Rovers@nps.gov.

Longmire Campground Cleanup

Over the span of two week in June, teams of volunteers were hard at work clearing away the piles of storm debris created by last year's work parties. On June 8, geocachers participated in their annual "CITO" event at the campground, and on June 15, another team of nine individual volunteers gathered for a second assault. Four hours later, two 15-yard drop boxes had been filled to capacity, accounting for approximately 75% of the debris. As noted above, the remaining debris is available to volunteers to use in their campfires (but only the wood piled by crews).

Adopt-a-Highway Picks It Up Again

A two-mile section of SR706 is all nice and tidy for the holidays, thanks to a team of volunteer "litter pickers" who are part of our partnership with the Washington State Department of Transportation's "Adopt-a-Highway" program.

Trails Volunteers, Hard at Work

Crews from the Washington Trails Association and Mount Rainier National Park Associates have been hard at work on trails this month, first at Carbon River, then, as the snow receded, the Wonderland Trail between Kautz Creek and Pyramid Creek. The crews accomplished a substantial amount of work grading and brushing the trails. If you missed these events, more opportunities are available. The WTA will be working in the Park Fridays through Sundays in various locations throughout the summer season. Those who are interested should sign up through the Washington Trails association website at http://www.wta.org/.